Putin says he believes United States willing to defuse Korea tensions

There's another holiday around the corner - October 10, the anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers' Party - so it's not imperative for Pyongyang to conduct a test on September 9, he said.

On Sunday, North Korea had claimed to have detonated a hydrogen bomb that it said can be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile, five days after it launched a ballistic missile that flew over Japan.

During a phone call, South Korea's President Moon Jae-in is reported to have told Mr Trump: "It is crucial to come up with powerful and practical measures that can make North Korea realize [the impact of its actions]".

A senior administration official said the United States was still assessing last weekend's underground explosion but so far noted nothing inconsistent with Pyongyang's claim. I don't talk about them.

A truck carries a placard reading "No War No Trump", following a rally against the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system in Seoul, South Korea, on August 15, 2017. But experts still point out that missiles from Pyongyang may fly over a much shorter range and therefore fall before THAAD can actually detect them and intercept them. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un then called the launch a "meaningful prelude" to containing the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam and called for his military to conduct more ballistic missile launches targeting the Pacific Ocean.

The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean laborers overseas, and to subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

The United States has already banned Americans from travelling to North Korea following the death of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old college student from OH who was released from North Korea in June in a coma after being detained there for more than a year.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

He also accused Japan and South Korea of showing "utterly disgusting" and "despicable behavior" by taking the lead in seeking new sanctions. Mattis and Onodera condemned the North's latest nuclear test as a "destabilising provocation" that threatens regional and global security, chief Pentagon spokesman Dana White said. But they also pointed out that the North could fire ballistic missiles at any time from mobile launchers, known as transporter erector launchers (TELs). Its sixth nuclear test on Sunday prompted the U.S. to speak about a "military response" and South Korea to conduct major military exercises. It has previously retaliated against Seoul with unofficial economic sanctions.